Michael Albasini Victorious in Volta a Catalunya 2012

News & Results

03/25/2012| 0 comments
by Gerald Churchill

Michael Albasini Victorious in Volta a Catalunya 2012

Michael Albasini secured the 2nd overall stage race victory of the WorldTour for Team GreenEdge by winning the 2012 Volta a Catalunya. The dual stage winner grabbed the leader's jersey by winning the opening stage and never let it go afterwards.

Michael Albasini secured the 2nd overall stage race victory of the WorldTour for Team GreenEdge by winning the 2012 Volta a Catalunya. The dual stage winner grabbed the leader's jersey by winning the opening stage and never let it go afterwards.

"I need to thank the team for the work that they've done throughout the week," Albasini said after being celebrated behind the finish line.

"We're extremely excited to give these victories to our supporters," added Sports Director Neil Stephens. "We always do our very best, but the results don't always show that. When you work really hard and come out with the win, it's an outstanding feeling."

The final stage was a short, nervous day between Badalona and Barcelona that included three category three climbs and a category one climb. The early break of nine riders never gained more than two minutes on the field, and the last rider from the break was reabsorbed around thirty kilometers from the finish on the slopes of the penultimate climb.

According to Team GreenEdge sports director Neil Stephens it was easy for his team to defend Albasini's lead in today's stage.

"There was really no moment today when we were under terrible pressure," Stephens commented and continued "Those moments came earlier in the week. Today, we observed the different objectives of the other teams. When Garmin-Barracuda made their interests known, we let them ride on the front and took a secondary role. We knew all we needed to do was get Michael to the final climb because he started the day with a 01:30 lead. Even if he had gotten into a bit of a trouble on the last climb, which he never did, it would have been unlikely for him to lose that much time."

Albasini not only stayed with the lead group on the final climb, he also managed to stay with the leaders on the technical descent that followed. Julien Simon of Team Saur-Sojasun secured his second stage win in this year's Volta a Catalunya ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Damiano Cunego of Team Lampre-ISD. Albasini finished the stage in the same time as the stage winner to retain both the leader's jersey and his 01:30 advantage over Team Euskaltel-Euskadi's Samuel Sanchez. Jurgen Van den Broeck of Team Lotto-Belisol finished third, two seconds further down.

"I had Daryl [Impey] with me on the final climb," Albasini explained and continued "He has been by my side throughout the entire week. Each of my teammates did everything we asked them to do. They rode an incredible race, and I'm happy to pay them back by finishing off the job with the win."

The queen stage of this year's Volta a Catalunya was supposed to include a multitude of very hard climbs, but the stage length was significantly reduced due to heavy snow fall.

Michael Albasini and the rest of Team GreenEdge are using the TrainingPeaks training diary and nutrition planning tool also offered in a special version to our readers here on Roadcycling.com. Why not sign up for your own training diary today? It's a great tool for your 2012 season.

Watch Volta a Catalunya video highlights in the video section (US only) here on Roadcycling.com.

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